Sunday, 16 October 2011

I have got too many tomatoes, so I have been busy making things with them. I have made tomato jam (yummy with cheese) but my big success is the tomato ketchup. Here is today's end result, give it a go. It's great because there is no seeding or skinning and it tastes great.

Ingredients

2 onions, chopped

2kg tomatoes, roughly chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

150ml red wine vinegar

100ml water

½ tsp black peppercorns

½ tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp all spice

2 cloves

½ tsp crushed dried chillies

2 bay leaves

1 tbsp light brown sugar

Method

1. Put the onions, tomatoes, garlic, 50ml vinegar and the water into a large saucepan over a medium heat. Cook for about 40

minutes, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have reduced to a pulp.

2. Meanwhile, pour the remainder of the vinegar into another saucepan, and add peppercorns, spices, chillies and bay leaves

and infuse over a low heat for 10 minutes. Remove and put to one side.

3. Using a hand blender or food processor, whiz the tomato pulp until smooth. Then rub the tomato pulp through a nylon sieve

into a clean pan, making sure that you have extracted all of the pulp, leaving behind only the tomato skins and seeds.

4. Strain the infused vinegar into the pan, add the sugar and set over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally to

dissolve the sugar. Reduce to a simmer and cook until thickened and reduced to a thick consistency, about 500ml.

5. Remove from the heat and season to taste. Pour the ketchup into a jug and use a funnel to transfer it into sterilised bottles

or jars. Seal immediately and cool completely before labelling and storing.